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Review New series: Initial thoughts

Just a thought, but maybe this whole dual protagonist thing is them setting up a major generation shift. They tested the waters with Alain, saw that a (pretty-boy) traditional shounen protagonist worked, and decided to bring in Gou. But since they can't replace Ash immediately, they are going to build up Gou's popularity and then when the time comes, Ash will finally retire and the anime will shift over to either Gou or another protagonist.
I've seen this idea before, and do find it interesting even if it ends up being incorrect.
Ash was designed back when they thought the series would end after a year or two, so he was given a goal; become a Master. Note that in the first gen games Lance specifically says you're a Master when you beat him--if the anime had ended on schedule I suspect Ash would have been called a Master for winning the league/defeating the Elite Four.
This led to the twenty year long struggle where since his team keeps being replaced he never feels like he's making steady progress since he sometimes stalled out or even fell backwards. Eventually they specified beating a League isn't enough to be a Master then had him win one.

Now, Gou is new. He was made with them understanding that the series doesn't have a set end but is going to go as long as it sells merchandise and advertises the games. His wish to capture every Pokémon is impossible as long as they keep making new Pokémon, but he can make steady progress without the issue where you can only increase a League standing so many times before either getting stuck at runner up or winning. Sure, Mew could be his "League", but considering how much the advertising has mentioned Gou's catching goal I think it'll end up taking precedence.

It's too early to say anything for sure, of course. Could just be a coincidence.
 
Just a thought, but maybe this whole dual protagonist thing is them setting up a major generation shift. They tested the waters with Alain, saw that a (pretty-boy) traditional shounen protagonist worked, and decided to bring in Gou. But since they can't replace Ash immediately, they are going to build up Gou's popularity and then when the time comes, Ash will finally retire and the anime will shift over to either Gou or another protagonist.

One difference though: Alain wasn't a permanent companion.
 
Even with me saying that Episode 2 and the recent episode being good, something with this series just isn't clicking with me at all and I've got a terrible feeling that various aspects are gonna get stale or wear out their welcome very quickly (episodes relying on Ash and Go's dynamic with no one else or anything interesting to back them up, Team Rocket's portrayal and their gacha machine).

I feel the same way tbh. So far nothing about this saga has been terrible per se, but I can kinda sense that things will get old really quickly if Ash and Go are the only characters who will be doing stuff for the majority of the saga. I like the new professor and Koharu and even Team Rocket, but if they're going to be pushed aside so that Ash and his new BFF can go on their couples retreat adventures, I'm not sure that it'll be worth watching this for 3 or 4 more years or however long this saga lasts.
 
Just a thought, but maybe this whole dual protagonist thing is them setting up a major generation shift. They tested the waters with Alain, saw that a (pretty-boy) traditional shounen protagonist worked, and decided to bring in Gou. But since they can't replace Ash immediately, they are going to build up Gou's popularity and then when the time comes, Ash will finally retire and the anime will shift over to either Gou or another protagonist.

Was Alain considered a pretty boy? I don't remember any comments about his looks compared to Go. Most of the initial positive reception centered on Alain being traditionally cool/serious and not being Ash. The idea that they're setting up Go to be Ash's replacement is still a huge stretch to me. It just feels far too early to jump to those kind of conclusions and I just don't see it being plausible. Regardless of how popular Go becomes, I don't think he'll be as easily recognizable as Ash and Pikachu are. They are basically mascots of the anime and I don't think that Go and Scorbunny could match that. Plus, having Scorbunny does kind of tie Go to the eighth generation. Not as much as characters from the games and it might be more of moot point when we don't know how much of Sword/Shield they'll adapt to the anime, but I don't think that Scorbunny could replace Pikachu in terms of being the face of the anime.

Now, Gou is new. He was made with them understanding that the series doesn't have a set end but is going to go as long as it sells merchandise and advertises the games. His wish to capture every Pokémon is impossible as long as they keep making new Pokémon, but he can make steady progress without the issue where you can only increase a League standing so many times before either getting stuck at runner up or winning. Sure, Mew could be his "League", but considering how much the advertising has mentioned Gou's catching goal I think it'll end up taking precedence.

It's too early to say anything for sure, of course. Could just be a coincidence.

Maybe I'm too set on the usual format of the anime, but I can't really see PM running indefinitely. Hopping around different regions can't work forever, especially when even doing it for the usual three year long series seems kind of tricky. Plus, giving the anime another title would help with marketing and making it more distinct. I still think that they wanted to go back to the Pocket Monsters title in large part because doing so after years of different titles would make it stand out. I'm also really not sure how many Pokemon Go will realistically catch during the course of the series.
 
Maybe I'm too set on the usual format of the anime, but I can't really see PM running indefinitely. Hopping around different regions can't work forever, especially when even doing it for the usual three year long series seems kind of tricky. Plus, giving the anime another title would help with marketing and making it more distinct. I still think that they wanted to go back to the Pocket Monsters title in large part because doing so after years of different titles would make it stand out. I'm also really not sure how many Pokemon Go will realistically catch during the course of the series.
I think I'm more strongly considering unlikely ideas like replacing Ash or reserves appearing because for the first time in a long while I'm really unsure about what's going on with the anime.
The broad strokes of everything from AG to XY was fairly predictable, but everything's gotten weird since Sun/Moon. The show gave us a series that had a smaller focus on battles that advertised itself as a comedy but had the longest league in the series with Ash finally winning.
Now on it's own that would be easy to explain. Sun/Moon's direction must have been chosen before the Kalos backlash happened, then he won a league as a bandage fix, and the league was made so long because it was his regional championship so they didn't want it being short.

Now, though, we also have a series that isn't focusing on the newest game. That's super weird. The show's always been about advertising the most recent generation, but now we have a global based series. Not only that, we've got promotional material saying Ash is now trying to become the strongest battler and an episode about Ho-oh with promotional art showing Ash with a rainbow wing.

So what I'm thinking is if I was running the show and was going to retire Ash? The build up would look a lot like what's happening now.
*A different basic plot than "do the latest set of Gym badges".
*Steadfastly deny the "new series reset" has occurred.
*Introduce a new character to take over (assuming I think we need a single main character instead of going the Adventures route), putting him alongside the current one to build a fanbase instead of just putting him in immediately.
*Start looking at any story elements the old character needs to tie up, like whatever is going on with Ho-oh.
Again, it's too early to say anything; for all we know next year we'll be in Galar full time.
However, speculating now is more interesting than ever with some of the major status quo elements recently broken. After Sinnoh I thought there was honestly a decent chance Ash would never, ever win a league and the show would just get abruptly cancelled without enough warning for them to change the ending of whatever the current series was.
 
Just a thought, but maybe this whole dual protagonist thing is them setting up a major generation shift. They tested the waters with Alain, saw that a (pretty-boy) traditional shounen protagonist worked, and decided to bring in Gou. But since they can't replace Ash immediately, they are going to build up Gou's popularity and then when the time comes, Ash will finally retire and the anime will shift over to either Gou or another protagonist.
We have this debate every generation that Ash is going to retire, come on.
 
We have this debate every generation that Ash is going to retire, come on.
Another thing I want to bring up is that Ash is undergoing design changes. A lot of long-running anime have their protagonists change designs, but they usually remain true to their original designs. I'm pretty sure if Ash stays, by 2050 when we put him side-by-side with his 1997 look he'd probably be unrecognizable. That's as good as being replaced in spirit.

Was Alain considered a pretty boy? I don't remember any comments about his looks compared to Go. Most of the initial positive reception centered on Alain being traditionally cool/serious and not being Ash. The idea that they're setting up Go to be Ash's replacement is still a huge stretch to me. It just feels far too early to jump to those kind of conclusions and I just don't see it being plausible. Regardless of how popular Go becomes, I don't think he'll be as easily recognizable as Ash and Pikachu are. They are basically mascots of the anime and I don't think that Go and Scorbunny could match that. Plus, having Scorbunny does kind of tie Go to the eighth generation. Not as much as characters from the games and it might be more of moot point when we don't know how much of Sword/Shield they'll adapt to the anime, but I don't think that Scorbunny could replace Pikachu in terms of being the face of the anime.
I thought Alain was considered to be bishounen. Must be just a part of the internet. But still, they deliberately designed him to be attractive in terms of looks, and they even slipped Manon a line, "You are my type" in the first ME special.

As for Gou, it is mentioned in an interview that they deliberately designed him to look like a bishounen. But that aside, they put much thought into how Gou looks like and they obviously want him to make an impression on the viewers. They obviously want him to be popular or else they wouldn't have opted for the dual protagonists. You are right that it is far too early to make any judgments, but who knows what they have in store for him.
 
Another thing I want to bring up is that Ash is undergoing design changes. A lot of long-running anime have their protagonists change designs, but they usually remain true to their original designs. I'm pretty sure if Ash stays, by 2050 when we put him side-by-side with his 1997 look he'd probably be unrecognizable. That's as good as being replaced in spirit.


I thought Alain was considered to be bishounen. Must be just a part of the internet. But still, they deliberately designed him to be attractive in terms of looks, and they even slipped Manon a line, "You are my type" in the first ME special.

As for Gou, it is mentioned in an interview that they deliberately designed him to look like a bishounen. But that aside, they put much thought into how Gou looks like and they obviously want him to make an impression on the viewers. They obviously want him to be popular or else they wouldn't have opted for the dual protagonists. You are right that it is far too early to make any judgments, but who knows what they have in store for him.
Go has a Scorbunny not a Pikachu. Scorbunny is a Galar Thing, and not popular as Pikachu and nothing can replace Pikachu either. It'll be gone by the end of the series which is why I don't see Go staying
 
And, now, out of nowhere, he decides to catch a Scorbunny. Despite having told it a few minutes earlier that he wants Mew to be his first Pokémon. And why's that? Because it managed to kick a giant berry into G-Max Snorlax's mouth and nearly got eaten doing it?
Yes. It's because of that.
 
Another thing I want to bring up is that Ash is undergoing design changes. A lot of long-running anime have their protagonists change designs, but they usually remain true to their original designs. I'm pretty sure if Ash stays, by 2050 when we put him side-by-side with his 1997 look he'd probably be unrecognizable. That's as good as being replaced in spirit.

Ash's new designs really don't seem like that different from his original one. He doesn't look like a completely different character compared to how he looked in the original series. He is still recognizably Ash and I don't think that's going to change.

Kyriaki said:
I thought Alain was considered to be bishounen. Must be just a part of the internet. But still, they deliberately designed him to be attractive in terms of looks, and they even slipped Manon a line, "You are my type" in the first ME special.

I don't recall that line from Maron, but I think I only saw that special raw once since I didn't know if it was going to be dubbed and I don't know if the dub kept it in either. Alain really doesn't come off as attractive to me, or at least not bishounen. Most fans were just happy to have someone else to focus on besides Ash more than anything else.

Kyriaki said:
As for Gou, it is mentioned in an interview that they deliberately designed him to look like a bishounen. But that aside, they put much thought into how Gou looks like and they obviously want him to make an impression on the viewers. They obviously want him to be popular or else they wouldn't have opted for the dual protagonists. You are right that it is far too early to make any judgments, but who knows what they have in store for him.

They definitely wanted to make Gou more attractive with his design, which is a big reason why fans were questioning his gender once the initial poster came out. I'm sure that they want Gou to be popular/well received, but the idea that they want to use him as a new lead to replace Ash just feels like a stretch. It's basically the same kind of discussion that happens with every series with people wondering if this will be Ash's last series before being replaced and it always feels so unbelievable to me.
 
This idea of Ash becoming a side kick to Gou is flimsy. Having two protagonists of equal standing means one has to take a backseat while the other drives, until events transpire in the story that affect them both equally. Naturally, a lot of the early episodes of Pokemon 2019 are focusing on Gou because he's the new guy and they need to get people attached to him. Ash will have his episodes with the upcoming battle frontier visit and the Ho-Oh episode.

A potential reason Gou was designed as a pretty boy is to distinguish him further from Ash. He's a good-looking city kid while Ash is the rougher looking boy from the countryside. Considering how often they're on screen together, it's important they're visually distinct from one another.
 
Ash's new designs really don't seem like that different from his original one. He doesn't look like a completely different character compared to how he looked in the original series. He is still recognizably Ash and I don't think that's going to change.

Well, I guess that's you. For me, his design change is already drastic enough.

I don't recall that line from Maron, but I think I only saw that special raw once since I didn't know if it was going to be dubbed and I don't know if the dub kept it in either. Alain really doesn't come off as attractive to me, or at least not bishounen. Most fans were just happy to have someone else to focus on besides Ash more than anything else.
I'll have to check the episode again, but it was during the scene where Manon follows Alain in the forest and she was talking about his qualities when she said he was her type.

Also, again, it might be due to differences in the fans we interact with. The fans I've seen commented a lot about his looks. Maybe they're not the majority, but they're there.

They definitely wanted to make Gou more attractive with his design, which is a big reason why fans were questioning his gender once the initial poster came out. I'm sure that they want Gou to be popular/well received, but the idea that they want to use him as a new lead to replace Ash just feels like a stretch. It's basically the same kind of discussion that happens with every series with people wondering if this will be Ash's last series before being replaced and it always feels so unbelievable to me.
Well, a lot of things have been unbelievable in pokemon recently. Just throwing it out there.
 
Well, I guess that's you. For me, his design change is already drastic enough.

His design has changed for sure, but I imagine most people would still recognize him as Ash even if they hadn't seen the anime in a long time. Granted, I've watched the anime since the original series, so seeing how Ash's design gets updated with every series might make it harder for me to see it as that drastically different too.

Kyriaki said:
Well, a lot of things have been unbelievable in pokemon recently. Just throwing it out there.

While that's true, I don't think that makes the idea of Gou replacing Ash more plausible. It still basically sounds like a new version of the same "Ash is finally going to be replaced" discussion that I've seen since around Johto.
 
His design has changed for sure, but I imagine most people would still recognize him as Ash even if they hadn't seen the anime in a long time. Granted, I've watched the anime since the original series, so seeing how Ash's design gets updated with every series might make it harder for me to see it as that drastically different too.
Guess I'm in the minority then.
 
I like how some patterns are being broken early on but I am not happy about Team Rocket basically being handed Gyarados and Tyranitar on a silver platter. If they aren't going to keep them permanently then that makes it even worse because they won't get a chance to be emotionally close to each other.
 
Okay? Like I said, it doesn't make sense that that alone changed Go's stubborn mind so quickly.
I literally can't think of anything more impactful than someone almost giving their life to help me. So, if even something like that can't change his "stubborn mind", I can't think of anything more impactful to change his mind.
 
Gou was designed as a pretty boy

He's a good-looking city kid

Image result for chris hansen  gif

I mean I don't think of Go's design as being either bad nor good really. At first I thought he was a girl, but then it was made more obvious that he was a guy and I was just like oh ok. Whether he was designed that way on purpose to distinguish him from Ash or not is another story.
 
5 episodes in I'm starting to warm up BUT it still needs improvement, I was still hyped at this point in BW, XY and SM, PM is a slow burner it seems.
 
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